Latest Google Chrome browser is faster than... a potato gun

Google has claimed 30% and 35% improvement using the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks with its latest Chrome beta release. Chrome launched in September 2008 and Google says the overall improvement since the first beta is as much 213% and 305% using these benchmarks. The company has also come up with some novel (meaning thoroughly unscientific but a bit of fun) ways to speed test the latest release against "real life" speed benchmarks. So is it faster than a potato gun?

The new Chrome beta features synchronization on multiple computers via your Google Account for bookmarks and browser preferences, including themes, homepage and startup settings, web content settings, and language. There's also some new HTML5 features - Geolocation APIs, App Cache, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop capabilities - plus integration of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in with Chrome.

Google Chrome's market share is now estimated at between 6% and 10%, with our own stats showing that 12.5% of Gizmag readers are surfing on Google's browser.

And the "real-life" benchmarks? The results of putting Chrome up against a potato gun, sound waves and lightning might not sway your browser choice, but it does make for an entertaining video. Apparently the Idaho potato is the one to run with.